ABSTRACT
Background: Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers and causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The diseaseshows varied epidemiological, clinico-radiological, and pathological profile. With the changing trends of chronic benign lungconditions and better diagnostic modalities available for detection and staging of lung cancer, especially with the advent ofmetabolic imaging, the current clinico-radiological profile in a tertiary care center was analyzed.Aims and Objectives: The aim of the study was to study the clinico-radiological profile of lung cancer patients in a tertiary carecenter in Southwestern part of India.Materials and Methods: This is a prospective descriptive study done between November 2016 and November 2017. A total of125 of histopathologically proven primary lung cancer patients were enrolled and analyzed. Their history, demographic profiles,clinical details, histopathological, and radiological findings were obtained and analyzed using SPSS software.Results: A total of 125 patients were analyzed in our study. The mean ± SD of the age of cases studied in the study groupwas 58.1 ± 12.1 years with an overall male predominance with male/female ratio of 1.84:1. A total of 66 patients (52.8%) weresmokers (active) with an average duration of smoking being 24.5 pack years. Cough (82.4%) and dyspnea (76.8%) were themost common symptom while pallor (56.8%) and clubbing (39.2%) were the most common physical findings. Mass lesion(80%) was the most common radiological presentation. Adenocarcinoma (72.8%) was the most common histopathological typefollowed by squamous cell carcinoma (20.8%). Most common site of metastasis was bones (52.8%) followed by metastasisto adrenals (20.8%) and liver (19.2%). Nodal upstaging after positron emission tomography (PET) scan was demonstrated in32% of the patients.Conclusion: Carcinoma lung remains one of the most prevalent causes of cancer-related mortality in the world. Smokingcontinues to be an important risk factor for the development of carcinoma lung with cough still being the most common clinicalpresentation. The radiologically mass lesion is the most common presentation. 18Flurodeoxyglucose-PET imaging has emergedas an inescapable modality to be used in evaluation and staging in patients of primary lung cancer.